RockstarGamesUncut

After countless days of solid work and too many cans of Coca-Cola to mention, the revamped RockstarCommunity is back up. There are a few major changes from the old community so we’ve made a list for you:

• The new forum is powered by phpBB, which is much easier to use yet equally as powerful.
• We also managed to get a skin which resembles the main site much more now - for a more ‘intergrated’ look.
• Over the coming months and years, we will be adding various features to the forum thanks to a thriving open-source community.
• There will also be competitions and giveaways to win Rockstar prizes so stay tuned!

And as before, registration is 100% free and takes less than a minute to do. Oh, and previous members will need to re-register if they wish to use the forums again due to the migration of software - we’re sorry for any inconvenience but there wasn’t much choice for us. So head on over to RockstarCommunity.com or rockstaruncut.com/forum and join a growing Rockstar Games community!

Rockstar have just released a press release announcing a short delay for Midnight Club: Los Angeles and Midnight Club: LA Remix. The two games were originally intended to release September 9th in North America and September 12th for Europe, but a delay has pushed them back to October 7th [US] and October 10th [Europe]. It’s likely the games will be shown at E3 in a few weeks.

Rockstar San Diego has created a beautiful rendition of Los Angeles to race through at break neck speeds and explore at your own pace. With no tracks and no load times, Midnight Club: Los Angeles offers the ultimate freedom to play however you choose.

It seems that a guy under the pseudonym ‘Scotty C’ may have managed to get Rockstar and Take Two to accidentally confirm the existence of GTA IV for the PC. ‘Scotty’ sent an email to Rockstar’s Tech Support pretending to have downloaded a free copy of GTA IV on his computer and a rep later replied:

“The PC version of GTA IV has not even been announced for release and is still in development so is not about to be released on a website we have no knowledge of”

The guy even set up a blog to publish what happened, RockstarScammer. So could Rockstar have made a mistake by falling for the trap? Nah, I actually doubt it - I smell a fake to be honest. I’m sure this is not the first time someone has tried this trick similar to this, so why would Rockstar be so careless. But I’m still positive GTA IV will be released on the PC eventually anyway, maybe an announcement at E3?

Rockstar must be sick to death with the amount of news that shines them and their games in bad light with ‘related’ crimes. Well, it looks like there is another one but this time, the teens who committed on the crime spree actually admitted that the GTA series was their influence.

Six teenage kids ranging from the ages of 14-17 spent a full night last Tuesday commiting several acts including beating and mugging a man, attempting a car-jacking, and vandalising a vehicle before being arrested by police. The kids were also armed with weapons; a baseball bat, crowbar and a broomstick [I bet that came in handy].

“They decide that they’re going to go do some street robberies, emulating the popular fictional character Niko Bellic,” Nassau County detective lieutenant Raymond Cote told Newsday. In the first incident of the night, the mugging, Cote said the teens “approach him from behind, force him to the ground, start punching him, kicking him, knocking the teeth out of his head and take what he has on him.”

Two of the kids already had prior records so crime wasn’t new to them. All six were charged as adults; five are facing a felony robbery rap and the sixth was charged with a misdemeanor for possession of stolen property.

Nintendo has released an updated schedule for the Wii and DS for the coming months and it seems that Manhunt 2 is one in the long list of games. The list states that Manhunt 2 is expected August 2008 - only 10 months after North America’s release so it looks as though Europe and the rest of the world will be seeing the most controversial games in recent years. Though, this date is not yet 100% confirmed as Eurogamer decided to email Rockstar directly on the new and recieved this reply:

We have no confirmed release date set for Manhunt 2 in Europe.

But surely, if not August then when? Rockstar really do need to get the game out onto the shelves if they want people to buy it, I mean, can it really stand against the great games of 2008 such as GTA IV and Metal Gear Solid 4 and their next-gen graphics? Come on Rockstar, we’re waiting!

The next time you boot GTA IV up on either the PS3 or Xbox 360, you will be prompted to update. Rockstar has released a patch to fix some of the multiplayer issues so here’s the full list of fixes:

• Fixed an issue where players were unable to enter or exit vehicles in GTA Race.
• Fixed an issue where scripted vehicles were causing games to unexpectedly crash.
• Improved reliability and frequency of PS3™ online leaderboard updates.
• Fixed a rare hang some players encountered when moving from a Race or GTA Race lobby into gameplay.
• Fixed a hang that would occur when players were switching teams during the countdown in the lobby.
• Fixed an issue where players were able to get ridiculously high scores from Cops ‘n Crooks matches.
• Changed GTA Race and Race so that the last player remaining always receives a reward of $250.
• Fixed an issue where spectating players would prevent the game from finishing.
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to spectate in Round 2 of Cops ‘n Crooks games.
• Changed countdown timer in lobby so that it no longer resets when new players join a game.
• Changed the kick option so that kicked players are no longer brought back to single player.

The 26th Annual Golden Joystick Awards are finally here and the short list has gone live. This means that people can go visit the official site and vote in a number of category’s for their favourite games over the past year - and what a year for gaming it’s been! And like last year, Rockstar has ended up in a few of the category’s including the Ultimate Game of the Year, here’s the categorys Rockstar appear in:

Nuts All Nighter:
Grand Theft Auto IV

One to Watch:
Grand Theft Auto IV DLC

PlayStation Game of the Year:
Grand Theft Auto IV

Publisher of the Year:
Rockstar Games
Take Two Interactive/ 2k Games

BBC 1Xtra Soundtrack of the Year:
Grand Theft Auto IV

UK Developer of the Year:
Rockstar Leeds
Rockstar North

Ultimate Game of the Year:
Grand Theft Auto IV

Xbox Game of the Year:
Grand Theft Auto IV

So make sure you head on over to the Golden Joystck Award website and vote - you can even win prizes including Xbox 360’s and Sony TV’s. Good luck Rockstar!

Rockstar could be facing even more controversy regarding the GTA series, especially the latest installment, GTA IV. British newspaper, The Sun has reported that an in-game website allows players to visit a ‘perv site’ that instantly gives the player a five-star wanted level. In the article are quotes from fans of the franchise who are disgusted and will never play it again.

“It’s disgusting. It could lead people to indulge in things like that. It is totally sick. I won’t play it again.”

Though, the paper does admit that the game ‘makes no suggestions that any mission allows the player to act out the role of paedophile’. What are your views on this? Do yo think Rockstar went too far, or that it is clearly only a joke and nothing meant by it? At least a five-star wanted rating is given, so Rockstar do at least condemn the act.

Some good news for gamers and even better news for Rockstar Games, Jack Thompson; the lawyer who loves to hate videogames, has today lost his license to act as a lawyer for at least 10 years. The case in Florida where Mr. Thomspon lives has concluded but it will be finalised in the Supreme Court come September - where it will be his last chance to appeal their decision.

The case against him was 27 violations of good profession, where he recieved complaints from several sides. One of his recent controversy was writing to the Director of Take Two’s, Strauss Zelnick mother, telling her that her son was spreading porn and violence in his videogames. So after all the trouble he has put Take Two and Rockstar through, we will finally stop hearing from him. Karma?

A mysterious Balance Board related video appeared on YouTube a few days ago, prompting many to believe that it a new game is in the making to work with the Wii Fit peripheral. Well, it seems as though it really is happening after Balance Board Blog recieved a message from the developer themselves:

“Wii Move is the first Project from PheroseSoft, a small 7 man team, made up from past members of EA Canada Burnaby and Rockstar North. The game looks to but an unexpected slant on the Wii Balance Board. Look for Wii Move to hit the download service in quarter four 08″

I’m sure the ex-Rockstar North staff will help make the game even better and I’m looking forward to seeing what the final thing is like [mind you, it will probably end up being just another gimmick trying to cash in on Nintendo's success].